Chapter 201
Chapter 201
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 201
Chapter Title: 61. What It Means to Inherit Blood (2)
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The information arrived just as the negotiations were wrapping up.
But the representatives from both sides were gathered together, moments away from stamping their seals.
It was clear misfortune for the 3rd Prince's side, but not for me.
"Halt all negotiations and stand by!"
I immediately flipped the negotiation table.
"Hasn't everything already been settled? There's no law in the world that allows this!"
The empire's envoys shot to their feet, protesting vehemently.
"The empire has already shown the utmost sincerity to mend ties with your kingdom! Pulling this at the last minute is utterly unacceptable!"
"His Highness the Prince regarded your kingdom as a brother and yielded on many points out of goodwill. This is nothing short of betraying that trust and faith!"
They pressed me with unprecedented vehemence.
Of course, their words fell on deaf ears.
Whether the empire and kingdom were even in a position to speak of trust was secondary; the fact that they were still acting high and mighty when their own feet were on fire was utterly pathetic.
I openly sneered at the empire's negotiation team.
"Do not forget that the empire is not proposing peace out of fear of the kingdom."
One of the empire's envoys trembled with humiliation and hurled threats at me.
"Is that so? Then let's keep going."
"W-what do you mean..."
"War."
The empire's envoys, who had been whining nonstop, shut their mouths in unison as if on cue.
"...Is there something specific you desire?"
The empire's lead representative, who had been hanging back and observing, sighed and asked me.
"You're the ones who have desires."
I replied that it was the empire that wanted something, and thus they had decided what to offer in trade for it.
"We shall return."
The empire's representative bowed curtly and rose from his seat.
He seemed to have realized that further talk would yield nothing.
"Since you're coming back anyway, make sure to fill your bags to the brim. We won't have time for back-and-forth."
"I shall keep that in mind."
The envoy delegation departed the fortress.
Even as they left, the Sky Knights who had been scouting the empire's heartland returned one by one, bringing reports.
Nobles who had followed the 1st Prince had largely defected to the 5th Prince's side.
The empire's western regions had long since fallen into the 5th Prince's hands.
Rumor had it the 5th Prince was expanding his forces at an unbelievable pace.
At the core of it all was the power of the Magic Tower.
The Magic Tower was no mere club of mages. It wasn't some half-baked group that gathered and dispersed for worldly gains.
It was one of the oldest organizations in this world.
That was the Magic Tower.
The mysteries, supernatural powers, and wealth handed down through generations far surpassed those of any ordinary faction.
I had to reconsider my assumption that the empire's civil war would end quickly.
"The Magic Tower is pouring vast sums into recruiting mercenaries."
"The mercenaries they've already assembled number over twenty legions."
Every piece of intelligence from the Sky Knights pointed to the civil war intensifying.
"Fire Dragon, our kingdom, Dotrin, and now the Magic Tower too. Does this great empire have demons on its side as well?"
I had foreseen the coming chaos, but its form was so different from what I'd imagined that I felt dazed.
Still, it wasn't a bad situation.
The more chaos in the empire, the better for the kingdom.
I was just curious.
How had the 5th Prince won over those stodgy mages?
Mages weren't the type to eagerly involve themselves in worldly affairs unrelated to their pursuit of mysteries.
To that, the Sky Knight spoke of rumors circulating in the empire about discord between the imperial family and the Tower Lord.
Apparently, during the recent Dotrin conquest, the emperor had forcibly conscripted mages, angering the Tower Lord enough to personally check the imperial family.
Some even claimed it wasn't the 5th Prince wooing the Magic Tower, but the Tower turning the 5th Prince into a puppet to spark the civil war.
It was far more plausible than the idea of the Tower Lord and mages suddenly going mad with lust for power.
But I didn't rate the rumors highly.
Unlike the 3rd Prince, whose greed had filled him to the brim, the 5th Prince wasn't fool enough to set a precedent of the Magic Tower meddling in imperial affairs.
There had probably been some under-the-table deal.
The problem was, I had no idea what it was.
"Keep the information coming. Relay everything, no matter how outlandish the rumors."
Having nearly botched a golden opportunity by rushing into a peace deal, I couldn't afford to miss even a scrap of intel.
I asked them to report every detail, no matter how small.
As a Sky Knight was about to leave, he turned back as if remembering something.
"The 5th Prince's declaration upon raising his banners was a bit peculiar. He proclaimed himself rising up as a scion of Burgundy to correct the imperial family's wrongs. In the process, he harshly condemned the current emperor as a wicked deviant straying from the righteous path."
This was unexpected.
I'd assumed his casus belli was that he couldn't stand by while the trashy 3rd Prince ascended and ruined the empire.
No.
"Of course, he didn't spare criticism of the 3rd Prince's qualifications either. But the tone against the current emperor was far stronger. The main thrust was that all the turmoil in the empire was the current emperor's fault."
For a rebel, harping on the ruling power's moral failings wasn't unusual, especially now with repeated upheavals in the empire.
Any excuse would stick.
There was no better time to tear into a monarch's shortcomings.
If that were all, I would have let it slide.
But...
"He called the current emperor's reign an affront to heaven itself, and his own rebellion a fulfillment of heaven's will."
That couldn't be.
"He said the emperor's reign was an affront to heaven?"
"Yes. As long as the current emperor holds on, the world will know no peace, he claimed. He said he rose up to correct that."
It felt strangely unsettling.
The Sky Knight delivered a few more lines with an unconcerned face before departing.
Even after he left, I couldn't shake the unease.
It felt like I'd overlooked something crucial.
But I couldn't pinpoint what, and the frustration only grew.
In the midst of that, the 3rd Prince's envoy delegation returned to the fortress.
Naturally, my tone and demeanor sharpened.
Reading my mood, the envoys desperately tried to salvage the negotiations.
I treated them coldly throughout.
The stalemate was inevitable.
"Your Highness, leave the negotiations to us and rest."
Even the advisors stepped in, urging me to withdraw now that I'd sufficiently crushed their spirits.
But I wasn't here just to humble the envoys.
After several rounds of the anxious envoys fidgeting and retreating, a thought struck me.
This was the empire's affair, the Burgundy imperial family's business.
Instead of puzzling it out alone, better to ask the principals directly.
Conveniently, a Burgundy blood relative—the closest thing to a principal—was nearby.
"Tell the Prince I wish to meet him in person."
Shortly after instructing the envoys, a messenger from the Prince's retinue arrived.
"His Highness accepts your proposal."
Figuring a direct meeting between top decision-makers would expedite things, even the arrogant 3rd Prince hadn't refused.
Thus, a summit between the two leaders was set.
The site was the wasteland between Silver Lion Fortress and the empire's 41st Legion stronghold.
Our legions faced theirs across the border.
I gazed at the distant imperial forces.
There stood the 3rd Prince, surrounded by his imperial knights.
Even from afar, he looked thoroughly displeased.
With urgent need to return to the heartland, my foot-dragging had pushed his anger to the boiling point.
"Damn fools! If you lot had handled this properly, I wouldn't be bothered! Useless scum!"
His tantrum was so fierce it carried across the distance.
On the eve of the summit, imperial knights and nobles sweated bullets to calm him—a comical sight.
I watched from afar.
The 3rd Prince kicking noble asses or spewing curses was a pitiful display.
He seemed unfit even to inherit a minor house, let alone the empire.
I saw it that way, and so did everyone else.
Anyone could see it.
Would the emperor see differently?
Yet why had the emperor allowed this 3rd Prince to grow into the frontrunner for the throne?
The emperor must have known.
That the moment the 3rd Prince ascended, the millennium empire would crumble without even leaving its foundations.
He could have nipped it in the bud if he wished, or shored up a competent heir's position.
Instead, the emperor had stood by.
As if it mattered not who took the throne.
It was incomprehensible.
As questions piled on, the 3rd Prince advanced with a retinue of knights.
"Your Highness."
The watching knights signaled it was my turn.
"Let's go."
Led by the one-eyed cavalry commander and the Black Spear Cavalry, I headed to the open ground where the 3rd Prince waited.
"I yielded much thinking of you as a brother. Test my patience no further."
At the negotiation table in the open clearing, the 3rd Prince sat with head held high, greeting me arrogantly.
In response, I plopped down defiantly and stared him down.
His face flushed red at my attitude.
But since he was the desperate one, he growled instead of exploding.
"I'll accept all your demands. If you want the fortress, it's yours; land, yours too. Just don't get greedy. Lest I later regret my generosity and reclaim it all."
The farce of sworn brotherhood had ended long ago.
The 3rd Prince treated me openly as an enemy.
I had no intention of playing along anymore.
"Just one question."
The 3rd Prince ground his teeth.
He was genuinely furious that a prince from a minor kingdom dared stand tall before him.
"Ask. But if you waste time with nonsense after my answer, I won't hold back."
I nodded vaguely and asked the 3rd Prince.
"What is the emperor thinking?"
At my blunt question, the 3rd Prince's eyes bulged as he pointed accusingly.
"You cur! That's His Imperial Majesty the Emperor! Not for some backwater princeling to address lightly!"
"If you want to return to your precious emperor, you'd best answer."
"Urgh!"
The 3rd Prince thrashed in a fit.
I waited leisurely regardless.
After all, time was his enemy, not mine.
Once he calmed somewhat, the 3rd Prince asked.
"I can't fathom your intent. What do you mean by His Majesty's thoughts?"
"The empire's falling apart, so why hasn't he moved yet?"
The 3rd Prince scoffed.
"Don't underestimate the empire. It remains mighty. This petty disturbance can't touch its long history or reserves."
"That's why I'm asking—why not use that mighty power?"
"To a princeling from a podunk nation, this seems big. But know this: the moment His Majesty acts, it vanishes like a lie."
Like an idiot, the 3rd Prince missed my point and rambled on about the empire's greatness.
"My question's too hard for you, huh? Why did your mighty emperor stay silent, letting things reach this point? If he wanted, naming a successor and putting him on the throne would've been child's play."
Finally grasping it late, the 3rd Prince sneered.
"Deciding the emperor of a great empire isn't child's play. The empire won't let the unqualified ascend."
Said the epitome of unqualified himself, his words flowed smoothly.
The 3rd Prince spouted some survival-of-the-fittest nonsense he'd picked up somewhere.
"Our Burgundy imperial creed is that the truly superior will rise above any storm. That faith has never betrayed Burgundy's bloodline."
Only he was blind to how this might be the first betrayal in history.
"A princeling from a weak house clinging to primogeniture won't understand. That heaven ordains the blood of true monarchs."
I was about to end this nutrient-poor chat with the 3rd Prince.
I was.
But I couldn't.
"Many kings dot the world."
His smug utterance made my heart thrum.
"Yet the true king is Burgundy alone."
The air trembled uneasily at words from a fool bereft of any gravitas.
I glared at the 3rd Prince.
His arrogant, irritable face held nothing special.
But I knew.
It wasn't illusion.
The vibration in the surroundings and my heartbeat just now.
It was ripples from profound karma and ties scattered across the world, origins lost in depths unfathomable.
Though diluted through such an unworthy vessel, losing its weight.
It was unmistakably an epic from [myth].
"That's what they say of the Burgundy imperial house that upholds the millennium empire."
The 3rd Prince bloviated with haughty face.
Clueless to what had just transpired.